Like no other place on Earth.........

View from plane window coming into Queenstown, South island

August 12th-22nd

Nothing could have prepared us for the beauty that awaited in New Zealand…… But first we go back to the week leading up to our departure. After driving a full day from Port Pirie late in the afternoon we arrived in Adelaide. Being a big city it took a while to find a caravan park, but we eventually did though, but not at a bargain for $35 per night.  Amanda celebrated her 26th Birthday.  What was meant to be a couple of hours downtown Adelaide turned into a full day of treats. Some new clothes, 2 sets of heavy duty winter skiing gloves which we found at Rip Curl store, a nice lunch, a cookies and cream frapachino from Australia’s Tim Hortons, Gloria Gean’s made the end to a great birthday afternoon.
The next day spirits were high. After driving all the way through the Nullarbor some 1,100 kms on a pretty barren highway, today was the day we would set off to New Zealand. An 11 day trip with many ideas of adventures just waiting for us. We would eventually get to Queenstown but that came with a slight price, an overnight stay on a food court bench in the Aukland airport. After parking Sully in the long term parking and transfering the surf board from the roof to inside the van we flew from Adelaide to Sydney with a five hour stop there. Then to Aukland, where in the morning due to a combination of events mainly the fact we couldn’t figure out the layout of the airport and also the electronic boarding pass machines were out of order, we missed our flight! So lucky for us, with no fees we got onto the next flight to Queenstown. Whatever was going to happen we were not going to miss New Zealand!

Out the window of the plane coming into Queenstown, on the South Island, was the most incredible view of the many rolling snow covered mountains. That was a very special view on such a clear morning. We got off the plane not in the usual way, into the terminal but right into the fresh air. Walking to the airport the air was crisp and fresh, the mountains closely hugging around us on all sides. There in the bright airport we shopped around at 6 different car rental stands which was very convenient. It pays to shop around as I’m sure you know. We got a great deal. With no money down or deposit and half the price of the competitors, we got a silver four door Kia Getz. Next the chain fitting demo. “You’re Canadian, you shouldn’t have any problem”, the attendant smiled and told us as he demonstrated how to fit a flimsy looking bundle of metal chains over a tire mounted on a stand.   Since there isn’t enough snow in the winter season to justify snow tires these chains must be fitted, usually only at the bases of skiing mountains where there is the most snow.

Driving into Queenstown it reminded us of Alberta and B.C. The town is small, quiet and has a sense that everyone who lives there is loving where they live. Though having a reputation for a bit of a party town, our time there we observed that all the young people have a good time but respect the beautiful surroundings they so luckily get to call home.

View of town from Queenstown track

With no time to waste we had eleven days now minus the traveling. We found a very nice motel to stay one night before we would be able to check into our Wanaka resort which Amanda’s mum had given her yet again. Another week from her timeshare, this time for her Birthday (she is a pretty spoiled girl). From our hotel room Nick called his good friend, Alex from when he worked for Mission Australia and planned the rest of the afternoon. We would soon find out the phone company for our cell phone in Australia is not the same as New Zealand. Which makes using a pay phone very hard to use these days when none of them take actual coins anymore!!!

We met Alex at the famous Cookie Time store. The bags with the logo of cookie monster seal in delicious giant chocolate chip cookies. Then it was off to another local favourite Alex told us about, Ferg Burger.   Showing up and seeing the line out the door, Alex also told us this was the trend at the tiny burger parlour. We each ordered something different - Alex of course, having tried them all, gave us his critique. We didn’t think we had ever eaten a bigger hamburger.  There was definitely no need for dinner that night! Also can’t leave out that we bought some very delicious fudge, peanut butter and also crème brulee. Alex showed us around town and we stopped for awhile to enjoy the view on the lake.
The next days were packed with activities as we wanted to maximize our short time there. Nick started the next day with a ‘Canadian breakfast’ at a local café. After we went for a walk on the Queenstown Track, privately owned land made open to the public by the owner. The views of Queenstown along this walk were unbelievable. We couldn’t get over what a special place New Zealand was and this was only our 2nd day!

FROLF

After the walk we met up with Alex again and he showed us how to play FROLF. Who would have ever guessed we would have been playing Frisbee golf in a park by the Queenstown lake in New Zealand!! For everyone who hasn’t played it’s the same rules as golf with 9 holes except your driver is now a neon coloured Frisbee!
That night we drove a quick 1 hour from Queenstown to Wanaka. In our peppy little Getz we were loving the short distances between towns. We were in no hurry to return to Australia’s, at times week long journeys.  The resort was wonderful. Complete with all the little things we had missed so much - blender, toaster, microwave, even a heated towel rack!

The next two days we were told that Wanaka and area was going to be hit with a pretty good snowstorm. But that didn’t stop us much. We hiked Mt. Iron, told to us a must see, where we would see views of the town and Lake Wanaka. This was definitely a perfect stop to come on a daily basis. We saw a few dog walkers, as they passed we knew they were locals. This would be one of the many great spots you could come every day.

That Sunday night we had a lovely meat and vegetable dinner in the resort’s cozy firelit dining room. After, as the snow came down we settled in, heated blankets blazing and watched A Christmas Carol. We couldn’t help but laugh because it was after all August 14th!

We started the week off in true NZ fashion, our first day at the slopes. After the storm settled it was perfect conditions. Nick, after some struggle got those chains on the two front tires, though not without getting his hands dirty from all the cow patties we had driven through the day before. But carefully packed paper towel took care of that! Though they had to be taken off to only have to put them back on again at the base of Treble Cone ski mountain, that was no problem now - chain fitting had been mastered.
The ski hills of New Zealand are nothing like the ones in Canada. Most of the year in Kiwi country there isn’t much snow or if any, in town and around the base of the mountains. So you could easily drive for 20 minutes to get to the top of that 900 foot ski slope. We got our first experience of this that morning. The road is incredibly steep and winding.  Now driving on the left side, going up Amanda got a great view almost straight down! No guard rails, just the odd snowbank keeping you from the edge.

There at Treble Cone, only 15 minutes away from Wanaka, Nick enjoyed himself on what he said could have been one of the best snow board conditions he had ever rode on. While in between runs he chatted with the locals about our famous ski slopes out west, Amanda was getting her first snow board lesson. The lesson went pretty good, though the T bar would need some practice.

Treble Cone

The next day we met up with Alex again and his friend, Jay, in Queenstown to ski/board at The Remarkables. Only 10 minutes away just outside lies another incredible mountain with amazing views. Yet again up an even more steep hill this time with added fog to enhance your fear as the tiny compact four door clung to the edge. That day Amanda got introduced to the “magic carpet“, much more preferable than the T bar!

Snow kiting

The next day was something that Nick had been looking forward to since months before. After he got a taste of kite surfing in the Pacific Ocean on the west coast, he had been researching about snow kiteing. A fairly new concept of actually riding your board and kite - with the right wind conditions, up the slope and then boarding back down.  What an adventure on Old Man Range, in Alexandra that day would turn out to be. The van holding Nick, Amanda, the instructor and his partner plus one other student, Matt, right away got stuck in a snow/mud bank.  Well, of course that wasn’t going to stop those boys.  Leaving the van at the base of the mountain, it was going to be a lot more difficult than expected to get the snowmobile up when there was hardly any snow. It took about 4 hours but the two girls walked up the mountain and the boys got rides on the snowmobile.  There was a great reward at the top - the view. Not only that, but the boys right away were pros at snow kiteing.  Those two Canadian kids couldn’t believe that on that day in August they were in New Zealand snow kiteing and watching that peaceful view of mountain after snow covered mountain.

The next morning was a 6 am wake up for the 7:30 am balloon ride at 6,200 feet over the mountains surrounding Queenstown. Upon arriving all 12 passengers watched as things got under way - the balloon was unravelled and the basket stood up. Everyone was nicely packed shoulder to shoulder in the basket. Going up on that perfectly clear morning, nothing could be heard except for the occasional blow of hot air. This was definitely a great way to see New Zealand.  The pilot even pointed out the famous mountains that were featured in Lord of the Rings. After landing everyone was all smiles as we sipped champagne and ate fancy danishes, but not before the pilot did the ceremonial practice of initiating everyone into the special balloon flying club. This was a dip of the champagne on the cork and then dabbed on the forehead! Wow - another incredible day!

Our last ski hill was at Mt. Hutt. A 6 hour drive from Queenstown just outside of Methven which is a short hour drive from Christchurch, our final destination on our wonderful NZ trip. This hill was great for Nick being intermediate and perfect for Amanda with great beginner lessons, her third. Nick even tried the luxury enclosed magic carpet with delayed playback video of everyone on the kiddie slope! Later that night we drove till we found a vacant hotel which happened to be all the way to  Christchurch airport.  After the earthquake that hit Christchurch, the city center was closed and being the peak season for winter sports, it was hard to find somewhere to stay.

Antarctica Center, Christchurch

On our last day before we had to catch our flight back to Australia, we visited the famous Antarctic Center. Nick said it was his favourite museum/interactive center he had been to on both trips combined.  There was a 4D movie which took you on a tour of  the Antarctic via boat, complete with moving seats, smells and getting splashed when the boat hit an iceberg!  There were blue penguins being fed. A ride on a Hagglund, a special snow transport vehicle took you through 6 feet of water and up steep hills. A sign showed the day’s forecast at the Russian base, a freezing -74 C.  A room simulated a blizzard at a balmy -8 C (no need for us to go in there having lived in Calgary).  A lot of information was displayed about the research and living conditions at the NZ base in the Antarctic.

We truly had a great trip. We packed something new and exciting into every day on that 11 day trip. From the amazing hikes to the snow boarding to the special experience of a hot air balloon ride, we really enjoyed it. People in NZ are wonderful, happy, hard working people who really care about their country and keeping it a very unique place.  In the short time we had, we felt connected to New Zealand in the same way as Canada’s amazing landscapes, fresh air, wildlife and freedom can have such an impact on one’s life and wellbeing.  We will definitely be back again one day.

A Taste of Western Australia:

Great Ocean Drive 

Thats just what we got on our self guided tour of the Southern part of Western Australia.  This blog post should treat you to some of the sweeter parts of this leg of our journey.
The last post had us leaving the City of Perth.  It wasn't far south that we made our first stop in the Music mecca and cafe capitol of Fremantle (known to the locals as simply Freo)  It was here that we took in the local markets and took to the nearby beach of Scarborough.  Here we checked the waves for kite boarders and surfers, and made our way to the Flight Center to book our New Zealand flights.  That evening had us back in Freo feasting on a delicious gourmet Roo burger from the crew at Jus Burgers.  They make a mean Roowich if we do say so ourselves.  Under the cover of darkness we camped at the beach and made our way back into town in the morning to catch a few local busking talents.  The shows consisted of the common balancing, juggling and music varieties but held a prefessional charisma that we have only found in Freo.  From our perspective we would call Freo the "Seatle of Australia".

Murphys Hay stacks

A mornings worth of driving brought us farther south to the town of Busselton.  A very helpful Visitor Center helped us map out an itenerary for the area, and in doing so convinced us to spend more than a couple days in the area.  We started by walking the local Jetty (warf).  Busselton boasted it was the worlds largest timber Jetty at an impressive 2km.  It was lit at night which made fishing a popular friday night activity.  Through the day they opperated a rail system to the end and back for those who were not inclinded to travel its length on foot.  Looking back at the town from the end made one think they were out on an island in the harbour.  To accomodate the fisherman the town had fish cleaning stations all along the jetties length.  In the morning Sully took us out to a hidden gem we never would have found without the help of the locals.  This place was given the amply named Gnomeville.  It started as a family memorial with a few friendly statues in this gentelmans favorite park.  Soon people were bringing their own gnomes there to keep the others company.  Now you can find "clans" of gnomes all over the area, some with themes, some with their own homes, or motorgnomes.  We left a few Canadian pillars  (pencils) as flagpoles in with the other Canadian Gnomes.  From there we set off on the "taste of WA" tour set out by our friend at the Busselton Visitor center.  The crawl took us to a local cheese factory where we sampled their assorted cheese and yogurt.  We couldn't leave without a block of their smoked cheddar.  Next stop brought us into the nut and cereal shop.  There we sampeled dozens of nuts dipped in dozens of coatings which had us leaving with a bag of spicy, smoked almonds.

Giant Tingle Tree

On a roll we continued round the corner to the Margret River Chocolate factory.  There we grabed handfulls of milk, white, and dark chocolate buttons and watched them construct one of their many famous hand made treats in the kitchen.  We grabbed another mitt full of free goodies and wandered about the giftshop.  There was truly something for everyone in there, as long as it had some sort of chocolate in or on it.  With a sugar buzz we whipped down the road to a local family shop famous for their wine AND nougat.  Amanda sampled a few reds while Nick sorted through a few flavours of soft chew nougat.  It didn't take much arm twisting to get us to leave with a bottle of marlot and a brick of cranberry/pistacchio nougat.  The samples made up our lunch, and we took all our newly acquired goodies back into town and enjoyed a couple glasses of the marlot complemented by the smoked cheddar and watch the sun set over the wooden jetty.  Its truly the simple things in life like when and where, that make for the best memories.

The next day we awoke to dark clouds and rain.  Fourtunatly we had a few indoor plans for the day already.  Despite what the sky had in store for use we ignored it and took to the underground.  We made our way down a set of man made steps into the Ngilgi caves.  Once at the bottom we guided ourselves around well lit caverns, narrow passages and a maze of growing formations that hung, clung and reached out from every direction.  It was hard to imagine the whole coast was riddeled with known and unknown spaces underground just like this.  This particular cave also played host to the odd opera, or live band from time to time.  It has even been known to have been booked out for use as a recording studio as the acoustics were unmatched by most modern facilities.  The rain had ceased by the time we poked our heads back out of the earth.  That made a tour of the light house atop Cape Naturalist much easier as it is also one of the windiest places on earth having an average of 364 windy days a year.  Most people concern themselves the most with the view from the top but we found the village around it the most interesting.  It was one of the last lighthouses in Australia to be converted from man operated to automated.  That being as such, there is heaps of evidance of how it was operated when a crew of four men would keep the two tonne lead glass lense turning all day and night.  If the lense stopped during the day it would act as a giant magnifing glass and surly burn the place down as was the fate of many other lighthouses of the time.  Interestingly the heavy lense sat on a bearing made of mercury which had to be cleaned regulary by the men.  From all the exposure to it many went crazy, but their madness was associated with isolation rather than poisioning and the cycle continued.  The same fate could also come from the caroseen that the lamp burned at all times.  Due to the confined space and the lack of ventilation many men were lost to mental or physical illness.  Now the whole opperation is electronic.  The lighthose also acts as a weather station.  The keepers spend the majority of their time doing the tours and maintaing the grounds.  This is the end of an era they say.

On a bit of a lighthouse bender we continue down the coast to where the Indian Ocean meets the southern Ocean.  There sits the Augusta lighthouse.  From here, east, we would be able to catch migrating whales off the coast and even a chance to see mother and calf pairs lingering close to shore feeding.  The pictures can give clues as to the beauty found along this part of the country and we can vouch for it but you have got to see it for yourself.  Cliffs drop into the crashing sea.  Blowholes exhale long tired sighs and tingle trees tower over the winding roads.  Along the trail we stumbeled upon and cluster of attractions called "climbing trees".  These were outfitted with spiraling stairs consisting only of rods of rebar.  They wound up to a lookout some 63 meters up, and were originally used for fire lookouts.  Now they serve as a great opertunity to take photos of the forest canopy. The path took us though Warren National Park where we got up close and personal with more of the gentle giants.  In particular we took in the famous parking tree that was so large at the base that the loggers would park their car inside.

Gnomeville

Albany was the next port of call.  It was here we ran into an old friend from the road (George) and his pet dingo (Elliot).  Together we took in the local sights atop Mt. Clarence getting a 360 degree view of the town and islands just off the coast.  That night found us cooking in the dark.  It proves to be challanging but can not always be avioded.  This particular night we played host to a local fellow.  We are still not sure of his race  but are certain he belongs to the rodent family.  He was just smaller than a possum and was not the least bit shy.  He would make dashes only 2 feet away toward the kitchen.  Had we known him a little better, perhaps he would still be with us today but as it stands he is currently in a better place.  Albany also plays host to an attraction called Whale World.  This was the last opperating whaling station in Australia.  It was not long after its closing that its fate was decided, therefore all the machinery is in working order and apart from the smell (and and lack of) would not notice that its been closed for 30 years.  Guided tour, complete with 3D movie had us killing the entire afternoon.

Goodbye Albany.  Hello Esperance.  Goodbye Esperance.  Hello Norseman.  Norseman had us taking in a few factiods about the local gold mining industry and preparing us for the next leg of the journey...The Nullabor.  Its clame to fame is that it is officially the longest straight strech of road in the world.  It also plays host to the longest official golf course in the world.  18 holes stretch over many hundreds of KM.  To play you would start with a scorecard and play one hole at chosen road houses all across Australias largest province, but you won't see any golf carts on this course.  You will however see the occational motorcycle with a club or two hanging out the saddlebags.  Most players finish their 18 holes in three days.  The Nullabore is a right of passage for many.  How you get across it is up to you.  We have run into lots of cyclests, the occasional walker, and have seen pictures of one man who pushed a wheelborrow the entire length.  We are glad we included it in the journey, but see no need to do it twice in one lifetime.

mother and Southern Wright Whale calf

At the end of the Nullabore is the Head of Bite.  It was here we found the famouse pairs of humpback whales.  Countless mothers with calfs playing close by strolled back and forth along the cliffs.  We lost count at 16 but some have seens as many as 46 in an afternoon.  You can easily loose an afteroon this way and one lady claimed she has spent 8 hours there, however, not to the pleasure of her waiting husband.

The wide open spaces en route to Adelaide made for great boomerang practice.  We even reciecved a few tips from the locals.  Still after many failed attemps we can only be glad we do not have to rely on our throwing skills for our dinner!

From here we will hop on a plane bound for New Zealand.  We have recieved a wonderful gift from Amanda's mother of a weeks stay in a resort at Wanaka.  It is a great oportunity to take a vacation from our holiday.      

Broome...Broome

At least that’s the sound the Van should be making as we turn right at a light inside the town of Broome.  Instead it is expressing its disgust with the work given to it in past few weeks as a high pitched squawk.  Upon a quick assessment Nick determined that the new timing belt put on in Cairns was quickly being burned off by a now stationary pulley.   This happened Friday night.  With few other options and limited timong belt left to get us around we plopped ourselves in the parking lot down at Cable beach.  From here we could walk to the auto parts shops as well as make our way to temporary accommodation.  Of all the places to break down there are far worse choices Sully (the van) could have made.  It was just our luck we would HAVE TO spend a few days lazing around the beach and waiting for new parts.  We would also HAVE TO take in the magnificent sunsets that this very beach was know for.

We arranged for the new parts and took up lodging in a local Hostel.  This particular hostel was also the hub for renting scooters.  We haven’t told Sully, but to explore the local sights we hired a 50cc and spent the day scooting about the old China Town, old ship wrecks, and the pearler’s museum.  The hot showers and (U.S./Canadian) room mates travel stories were a treat as well.  Scooters were not the only way about town.  Twice daily camels with tourist riders would catch our attention as they would saunter by and make their way down to the beach.

Nick grabbed the parts and installed them in the parking lot.  Chalk up another three parts for Sully’s “New” list.  Pretty soon WE will be the oldest part traveling around on his four wheels.  With all the Broome To Do’s checked off, and Sully in a better mood, we head out of town and make our way south to Karijini Nation Park.  This was a stunning part of the country and played host to Australia’s version on the Grand Canyon.  We spent the better part of three days here hiking through gorges, taking dips in waterfall fed pools, and swatting flies.  One of our most challenging hikes took us to the top of Western Australia’s highest peak.  Mt. Bruce.  The challenge was not only the length of the hike but the terrain you must pass to get to the top.  There were a couple “don’t look down” moments to say the least.  At the top you were rewarded with a panoramic view that exceeds explanation and a high altitude look of the local Iron mine and world record breaking trains that frequent the rails to and from the site.  Just as challenging was the hike down.  We both left with a feeling of accomplishment  and big grins on our faces.

From there we meandered SW to the tourist town of Exmouth.  We couldn’t have planned it but it just so happens that we had the same idea for the next few as every other WA family within 2 days driving distance.  It was school holidays and everyone in Australia’s largest province was out on the road trying to make the most of it.  Sully rolled into town just as a borderline cyclone hit the cape.  We bunkered down in one of two camping spots left in all the caravan parks.  We were rocked/sang  to sleep by 60-70 knot winds and rain.  In the morning the garbage bins could be seen crammed full of broken tent and awning poles.  Lucky for us we opted out of that option on our van model.  The next day Amanda competed for washing machines at the local laundry mat while Nick haggled over adventure tour prices.  We got in for the following day and came out with a fresh batch of clothes.  To kill the day we took in the coast and local lighthouse.  Nick joined the locals for a surf.  He was not the only tourist there, as a pod of dolphins decided to play along and share a few waves as well.  We were lucky enough to get into the National park for a discount campsite, but happened to be in the right place at the right time (tends to be a habit of ours) as someone had decided to leave mid morning.  The park was a great place to snorkel and we christened the snorkel sets “segway” Ray had given us back on the sunshine coast.  The water was crisp but the sun was hot so we made many short trips round the reef.  We made it back to our site just in time for “Happy Hour”.  We took part in an evening tradition where everyone at the grounds (18 or so lots) would make a circle in the middle and bring a beverage or two and chat about anything and everything.  It just so happened we shared the site with a helicopter mechanic and a old Alaskan float plane pilot/mechanic.  Needless to say there were was not enough time to get to chat with everyone.  The following day we got up before the birds and hightailed it into to town to catch our ride to an awaiting boat.  From there we boarded a dingy and made our way to the larger boat.  We settled in with hot drinks and bickies (cookies).  The name of the game today was to locate and swim with the worlds largest fish (the whaleshark).  Joining our skippers team were three spotter aircraft circling the area.  If they sighted anything they would radio to us the coordinates and the game would be on.  In the mean time we were briefed on procedures and snorkelled on some stunning reefs along the way.  While cruising along, from the boat we were able to spot sea snakes and turtles going about their business.  It wasn’t long before we got the call.  Decked out and ready we all waited for  the sign to jump off the rear of the boat and follow on of two guides to the spotted giants.  We made the plunge and followed our leader out into the open water.  It was only seconds before a (seemingly) smiling face of a 7-8 meter (small by standard) rose up out of the blue.  We didn’t have to kick very hard at all to keep up with this graceful creature as it skimmed the surface eating its lunch of plankton and krill.  Pilot fish hitch hiked along its belly and light played with the color of its spots.   It sounds cliché but it was a truly magical experience.  As an unplanned bonus for the day we were joined on our way back to the mourning by a crew of half a dozen adolescent male humpies, who in the spirit of day put on a show for us.  Sometimes only 20-30 metres off our stern they showed off for most of our trip in, slapping their fins and leaping out of the water and splashing onto their backs.  Another example of timing as we were told that even the skipper has never seen a show quite like it.  Our adventure with the crew was over for the day but we met them again the following day to check out the local navy pier.  It was built solely to dock U.S. boats carrying large parts for a sub communication station they had constructed back in the 70’s.  Now it was mainly used to take Canadian tourists on underwater adventures.  We tagged along with a group of 8 weaving through pylons and dodging old debris.  The conditions had us fighting the current which made for lousy visibility.  Despite all the obstacles we managed to sneak up on a few large “potato” cod, some flute mouths and a grey nurse shark.  It was a great experience and made it in our record books as dive #10.

  With southern momentum we make our way down and out to a little nook called Monkey Mia.  People flock here to trail walk, bird watch and almost always see the resident dolphins.  There are a family of them that have visited the nearby resort every day for over 30 years.  You can almost set your watch by their visit every morning for their breakfast.  Back in their hay day every visitor would get the opportunity to feed at least one dolphin.  That meant on the popular school holiday mornings there could be upwards of 150 free fish up for grabs.  With this influx of fish some dolphins saw little reason to continue hunting on their own.  Researchers found that some had even lost the ability all together and soon were weaned onto a leaner diet.  Now only a select few get the opportunity to feed them first hand, but all still get to watch this amazing event.

Logging more KM we press south towards the WA capitol of Perth.  Somewhere along this stretch Nick has decided that he will start growing his “backpacker beard”, so be sure to long on for beard status updates.  As we cross the 29 * parallel the scenery quickly begins to morph.  The trees become taller, with full canopies and the fields turn take on a  rich green hue.  Vast spaces closed into comfortable rolling hills that remind us of pictures we’ve seen of Ireland.  We are officially out of the outback in our minds.

Perth carries about its business with a different vibe than other Aussie cities.  European influence is all too obvious but anyone with a passion for food and fashion would make themselves right at home.  We would both be lying if we told you felt welcome here.  After our long stint traveling through Rural Australia we found ourselves in a state of culture shock like never before.  Perth being the last major city visit until our planned NZ trip we decided it was about time to lock in our tickets over there.  We checked into a hostel near down town and went about taking care of our flight plans, vehicle transfer papers, and even our taxes for the year.  We felt quite productive and rewarded ourselves with a night on the town.  As coincidence would have it our former Cairns room mate, Fred, the Brazilian, had only transferred schools two days ago and was now living only blocks from where we were staying.  He took us out to a 4 room club.  Each room played a different style of music and served varying drinks, with varying prices.  We started the night with premixed bottles of Canadian Club and ginger.  We cheersed Fred into the “club”.  Fred insisted  samba was the best way to put a smile on.  He was not mistaken.  The live band played Brazilian music and top 40 hits to the beat of samba all night.  We closed the place down and topped the evening off with a kebab.

Still restless to make our flights and continue our journey we said our good bys to Both Fred and the city of Perth.  Fred mentioned a visit to Melbourne before his trip home.  Something tells me we will see this fun loving fella again.                            

West Bound and Down

... loaded up and truckin’.  Equipped with extra fuel, oil, food and lots of water we set out on a 4726km journey through a generous portion of Australia’s official “Outback”.  This leg of the journey would be 500km more than the entire trip from Calgary, AB to Woodstock, NB we made prior to our trip.

Right away we knew we part of an elite club of Aussie travelers.  The club is widely described as the “Grey Nomads”.  Though its not a rule, the majority of members are retired and as some put it: “spending their children’s inheritance” .  As you advance in ranks your equipment becomes more spacious and luxurious.  The rolling town homes the senior members of the club use make tour busses look like little red wagons.  They welcomed our humble Sully (van) as if they’d been expecting us.  The drive was speckled with rest stops every 100-200km.  They varied in size and amenities, and the popular ones filled early in the day.  Taking a warning from all the dead roos we passed we avoided driving at night at all costs.  When the sun was shining there were few obstacles on this straight barren track we rolled along.  Much like owning a VW, or a Harley, everyone waves in the outback.  Heck, you might as well, with the traffic being the only other company along the way, coming along every 30min or so.

Of course it wasn’t a cannon ball run from Cairns to Broome.  We broke up the 14 day desert bonanza with a few detours into some of the more remote points of interest. But first though we have to take you through some of the small desert towns. About 300k’s from Townsville on the east coast, heading west is the ‘town’ of Prairie, pop. 50.  Flinders highway is the start of one of the highways that goes through the outback all the way to Broome. Along this highway and the ones that connect together lies most of these small towns. Prairie has a police station, a post box, a wind mill that supplies water to the public toilet, 2 houses and the hotel/motel/caravan park and that’s pretty much it. Camping behind the motel in a fenced off pasture, the 2 of us and the cows watched the clearest night sky of endless stars. The house on the corner had a fire and we star gazed while Johnny Cash played Ring of Fire from their small house.
Driving on (2500k to Darwin-our destination) we pass Richmond/Hughenden: 100 million year old dinosaur fossil remains can be found scattered throughout the desert there. Somewhere between Cloncurry and Mt. Isa we stayed at a rest stop, there we met two fellow canucks our age from Vancouver.  We swapped many stories, excited to talk to each other as the 4 of us were the youngest ones we had seen in at least 600ks. Next day in a dusty cloud we show up in Mt. Isa, the mining (ore) town nestled in a valley surrounded by red desert hills. One of the biggest cities in the world, stretching 41,000 sq k. pop 20,000. Oasis in the Outback, they call it. At a lookout we saw the view of the city.

Ok, moving on, we have to get to Darwin here people. Fast forward 3 days, 4 desert towns, a shower, 57 Litres at $1.99, must be 200 dead kangaroos by now, one large dead snake, one massive wedge-tailed eagle, 8 Litres of oil, saw the Canadians again and its 95ks till Darwin. Ahhhhh *sigh*…but wait its croc season and we cant go swimming noooooo.

Oh well we got our swimming in with a full day of waterfalls in Litchfield National Park., 155ks south of Darwin. Lots of people refreshed with a swim in Florence Falls, a beautiful pool surrounded by monsoon forest.  It was hard to believe after all the barren waterless terrain we drove through in the heart of it all was an oasis of swimming holes, and stunning cascades.  As the day went on they became larger and more spectacular.  Its as a waterfall crawl of sorts.  In the midst of all the cool clear water ways were fields of tomb stone like termite mounds guarding this desert sanctuary.  They ranged in size from small columns to towering castles of dirt, grass and dung.

Gazing over the Timor Sea is Darwin, the frontline for the Allied action in 1942 against the Japanese in the Pacific. It was the only Australian city ever bombed. The town has many heritage sites and is said to be Australia’s “Pearl Harbour”.  The majority of rest stops on the road into town were originally airstrips, hiding kitty-hawks and mustangs in the scrub behind.  Surrounded by all this flying history no visit would be complete without checking out the Air museum.  Darwin plays host to a full size B52 bomber on loan from the states.  In the center of the hanger all other displays appear miniature, with most fitting under the wings and tail of this giant.  After taking in these metal and fabric fighting birds, we made our way over to the Barry Springs Nature Park to check out a few of the smaller gentler living birds.  There were many local critters to check out, but the most impressive were the huge aviaries.  Some were large enough to be compared to a small sports stadium.  We also ventured by the nesting pelicans just in time for their lunch.  The new parents of 5-6 tiny hatchlings proudly watched as their keepers dropped tiny fish parts into their awaiting mouths.

From here we shot off in search of the coast.  There is little to write about this journey other than it took the better part of three days.  Driving 500+ km a day the landscape slowly but surely morphed into hilled valleys and jagged cliffs.  The land began to take on a rich green hue.  This seemingly endless drive took us into the town of Broome.  As we drove into Cable Beach the ocean crept into view and we both sighed in unison.  We celebrated the completion of the coast to coast trek with an overdue dip in the ocean. The water had never felt so good.  We may take a few days here and soak up as much as we can.  We would also like to thank Sully (the van) by giving him a few days off.  He was such a workhorse and didn’t complain once.

From here we will point Sully south and meander along the coast.  Neither of us have much desire to stray far from the cool coastal breezes.

Bumper sicker of the month: “Of all the things I’ve lost, its my mind I miss the most.”              

Groovin'

Some of our room mates!

June and I with the spirits we won
from the SES (state emergency
service)
 

"Verte", resident gecko we would
watch from the living room patio door

Yes we are in tropical North Queensland, but we’re not talking about the Bob Marley type of grooving’.  The groove we got into was the “work” groove.  Amanda jumped right into the dental assistant pattern, and Nick was in the right place at the right time and was invited to join the maintenance team at Flightech for three months.  To soften the morning routine we decided to move out of the caravan park and into a share house.  This allowed us a few creature comforts and gave us some extra room to stretch our legs.  Every day in the house made the van seem smaller and smaller.  Along with the shower and much needed A/C came a complete kitchen to help mix up the backpacker diet.

1300Smiles team

Flightech team

While we were working hard we did take time out on the weekends to see Cairns and the area. Here are only a few of the things that makes Cairns and area such a great place to live:

The lagoon off the Esplanade
at night

Just a short distance from the apartment was the main street, The Esplanade.  Lining the quaint town were more gelato than one city could support, souvenir shops, as well as the spectacular night markets open till 11pm were you could find everything from kangaroo skin rugs to faux pearls. Along the shore line is the famous lagoon, where you can swim all year round, sans jelly fish.

The Pyramid 

Walshes Pyramid: 20 mins south of Cairns in Gordonvale is the highest freestanding natural pyramid in the world at 922 m tall.  For us it was a very steep 5hr round trip. Reaching the top you are rewarded with a 360 degrees panorama view of Cairns and the Coral Sea. But you wont see us in the august annual race for shortest time to run up and down the famous mountain.

Barron Falls

Just 25k northwest of Cairns is the mountain retreat village of Kuranda surrounded by the World Heritage wet tropics rainforest. It includes about twelve hundred species of flowering plants, eight hundred of which are rain forest trees. Not far from the village is the Barron Falls boardwalk and lookout. Beautiful!


Again high in the Tablelands, surrounded by the lush rainforest is Babinda Boulders, a popular attraction, the creek is lined with huge boulders and clear fresh water weaves between the obstacles to fill large pools where you can swim. Signs lined the boardwalks warning to enjoy the view but in certain places not to swim. So craving a swim we headed to Josephine Falls in Wooroonooran National Park. The waters of Josephine Creek plunge over granite boulders forming a turbulent waterfall at the base of Queensland’s highest mountain, Bartle Frere (1,622m). Surrounding the falls is mesophyll vine forest, the most complex rainforest type in Australia. We enjoyed sliding down the perfect natural made water slide.
Just recently we spent the night out a Lake Tineroo, one of the three man made lakes in the Tablelands. We have been lucky to see many sunsets in Australia so far and this one was a another great to add to the list. Nothing less spectacular was the sunrise, with fog a blanket over the lake and even frost on the van! That morning we met a man and his wife from Perth traveling Australia just like us. He was excited to show us the giant Barramudi (considered the premier fresh water fish to catch in Australia). The lake, being only stalked and quite a young lake, he was sure this fish was one of the originals put there for fishing!

Birdwing butterfly

So, almost 3 months have passed in Cairns. Great people from all over the world we have met. We have been so fortunate to both have great jobs at the same time, and that we were needed for such a short time. Each day we have taken something for what we have learned, living the good life here in Tropical North Queensland. No worries.

But before we say our sad good bye, there was one thing we had to do: get our Padi Open Water Dive certificates. Hearing Pro Dive had a great reputation, great value and good instructors, we needed to hear no more. As a treat, we saved it until we both had finished working. This was a good idea because we could totally focus on the 2 day in class, 3 day on the reef course. Our first day we met Jack, our dive instructor who would be with us throughout the whole course.  We started with basic skills in the pool like breathing and equalizing our ears.  Later we would put them into practice out at the reef like letting water into your mask which for everyone was uncomfortable. Taking off your mask fully was apart of that skill as well, and at 14 meters its no ones favourite.  Amanda got the Nick name ‘weight belt’ because she during a exercise were we had to take our belts off in the pool, she dropped hers, after that the nick name stuck.

curious nemo

Giant clam

  Practicing a emergency situation we exchanged regulators, we were taught buoyancy, putting your BCD (buoyancy control device) and air tank/valves together. Also extras like towing your buddy and cramp removal etc. Among these things were extensive in class knowledge. That was great but we couldn’t wait to get out on the reef and see the incredible underwater world. Sailing 3 hours north of Cairns to Milnn and Flynn Reefs, we were totally immersed in diving for the next 3 days.  The rough schedule would look something like:  Wake up 5:45am. Dive. Breakfast. Dive. Lunch. Dive. Nap.  Snorkel. Snack. Supper, and on the 2nd day a night Dive. The night dive was a wonderful calm atmosphere, not like any of us had imagined. With our torches we explored in our group of 9 what life was like after dark. By now we had become very comfortable in our gear and our surroundings. All our dives lasted around 35-45 minutes. As we were coming to the end of dive we still hadn’t seen a shark, but just as we were doing our safety stop a peaceful white tip reef shark slowly swam by. Amazing!
 It was almost unbelievable, even on our down time snorkelling we couldn’t believe what we could see just floating. Giant ‘bomies‘ of coral created different passageways on our first dive as certified divers. Always diving in pairs, we were briefed on the ’Tennis Courts’, a lining of huge coral formations (the bomies). Different tunnels allowed for neat explorations. We waved at our friends, you can smile with a regulator in your mouth!   It felt as though we were swimming in a fish tank you might find in your local dentist waiting room.

Already certified divers doing up
grade courses-navigation

So on completing our open water, we decided to take advantage of the deep dive course (certifying you to 30m)  which for a small cost was extra and we thought we should because we were already on the boat! Going down to a total of 25 m, colors change- Jacks bracelet went from bright red to dark purple. We even opened a pop can to see the effects of pressure. What do you think happened?Sights include but were not limited to: Clown fish complete with anemones, barracuda, 3 different green turtles, Christmas tree worms, parrot fish, a giant Maori wrasse named “Wally”, sea cucumbers and so much more.

Coming back into Cairns harbor the view was amazing, the mounatins and quaint shoreline you cant take your eyes away. We really were sad to be back on land and soon have to leave Cairns. Not to mention the 24 hr which really turned out to be 3 days, of dizziness you experience from being on the boat. That night off the boat we had dinner and drinks at a hot spot on the Esplanade with all our diving buddies. We shared our stories and had some great laughs.  Now we can dive with any other certified diver up to 30m anywhere in the world and it never expires! It will no doubt be a highlight of our trip.

Sully (the van) has expressed his enthusiasm to get back to the open road.  With a renovated “kitchen” and an overhauled carburetor he is sure to be a loyal companion.  He’s pointing his nose towards Darwin.  We will tag along for the ride.  We’ll leave you with our new motto: “divers are great under pressure”